Literary Research at the McClain Library
Literary criticism is defined by the OED as the "art
of estimating the qualities and character of literary...work." It is
essentially the written evaluation and informed analysis of a work of
literature. Literary research is mainly compiled from works of
literary criticism.
Print Resources
To
find print sources on your author or literary work that are here on the
McClain's shelves, search Alexandria
by author’s name: "William Shakespeare,"
or "Shakespeare, William." You
can also search by the title of your work. Be sure to search by SUBJECT. A subject search will bring you only books about
your author and not
works with your author’s name in the title, or written by Fred Shakespeare. You can also find works of criticism by
typing in your author’s last name followed by the subject term
“criticism.” Again, be sure to search by
SUBJECT. ***
(Secret squirrel-if there is an "X" in an 800 call number, it is
a work of criticism.) Lastly, you may also use the type of
literature coupled with the phrase "history and criticism" to more
works of criticism (for example- "American Literature and history and
criticism").
Electronic Resources
TEL's Literature Resources searches Twaynes, Scribner's, and the other TEL resources that are geared specifically for literary research.
JSTOR
offers some of the most dense criticism out there in electronic format,
so take a peek at their academic journal articles.
EBSCO offers Literary Reference Center
, which provides biographical information on authors as well as
literary criticism. First, go to "Advanced Search." Under
"limit results by," make sure a check mark is by "full-text."
Search by title of work; then click the title
of book under "Narrow Results by" menu on left side of screen.
Finally, click the "Literary Criticism" tab at top of page.
EBSCO's Student Research Center r also contains works of criticism if you search it by the author's name coupled with the phrase "literary criticism."
Published by Thomson, these reference books offer SGC students full-text information from the Encyclopedia of
World Biography, American Decades, the Encyclopedia of Politics, the Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
and the Encyclopedia of Religion.
To figure out how to format a bibliographic citation, check out the library's link to Knight Cite . You may also check out Mrs. Allison's crib sheet , or (better yet) refer to your MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. If you don't have your own copy, stop by the library and check out one . You can also use your Hodges Harbrace Handbook for more information on how to write a research paper.
